“The debacle of the golden calf notwithstanding, the bronze laver for ceremonial cleansing was to be supported by twelve metal bulls (1 Kings 7:25). Not only were representations of nature prominent in the Tabernacle and Temple, but representations of supernatural beings, the cherubim, were everywhere—carved on the furnishing, woven into the veil of the Holy …
Kennel-Fed Rebels
“As the much censored cartoonist Garry Trudeau has observed in ‘Doonesbury,’ a government-supported avant-garde is a contradiction in terms. The spectacle of supposedly bohemian, anti-establishment artists quivering with indignation and ranting with hysterical rhetoric at the prospect of not receiving money from the bourgeois establishment they attack in their art is glaringly hypocritical (also deliciously …
Dour Chic
“Christians have been criticized for their ‘puritanical’ suspicion of pleasure and beauty. And yet the most flesh-denying ascetic, flagellating himself in a desert cave, and the most furious, tight-lipped Puritan, smashing stained glass windows and pillorying the playwrights, would be hedonistic voluptuaries compared to the existentialists.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway …
Crazed Secular Puritanism
“Art is whatever an artist does. In a kind of crazed secular Puritanism, contemporary theorists have been seeking to ‘purify’ art, to strip it of its human content and to reduce it to its barest minimum. The consequence has been the dehumanization of art.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), …
Reformation Iconoclasm
“Reformation iconoclasm was not, however, anti-art. Rather, the rejection of graven images resulted in a major rechanneling of art” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 59]
Define Kitsch
“There is a type of art known as ‘kitsch.’ In addition to paintings of Elvis on black velvet, this category would include plaster lawn ornaments, vacation souvenirs purchased in ‘tourist traps,’ and ‘cute’ knickknacks on the mantle. Kitsch is art of poor quality, which nevertheless manages to be enormously popular by appealing to some sentiment …
Cheap Thrills
“Some people enjoy being scared; others enjoy the spectacle of people getting butchered. Visceral reactions—to sex, violence, shock, or dazzling special effects—are relatively easy to induce, and much popular art is only entertaining rather than done well.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 39]
Part of a Larger Work of Art
“The art world today tends to scorn art that is ‘merely decorative.’ Choosing a painting because it matches the furniture does tend to minimize the work of art. The meaning of the work and its self-contained identity is neglected, giving the object of art no more status than the coffee table or the wallpaper. Decorative …
Art Need Not Be About Ego
“We do not know who designed the dazzling stained glass windows at Chartres, nor do we know who illuminated the Book of Kells or who wrote ‘Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight’” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 32]
Whatever the Artist Does
“The purpose is not to give the audience pleasure, but to assault them with a ‘decentering’ experience. Art becomes defined as ‘whatever an artist does.’ As a result, the work of art becomes less important than the artist, a view which encourages posturing, egotism, and self-indulgence instead of artistic excellence. These new assumptions about art …